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Hail Protector

Hail Protector on Invention USA

Hail Protector Season 2 - Episode 2 - 11-28-2012

This rather unique invention called the Hail Protector will be featured on Invention USA on Wednesday November 28, 2012. Co-Founders Steven Krug & Michael Siciliano out of Texas will be featuring their Hail Prevention Product that is sure to turn some eye's. The hail damage reported in the USA reaches in the billions on a yearly basis, and as far as I'm aware, this is the first company to address such a problem, atleast with such an ambitious large cover.

The Hail Protector is basically a large balloon-like product that inflates around your entire vehicle to protect it from the element's, specifically hail and heavy rain. If you have ever been in a severe hail storm you already know the damage your vehicle suffer in a short amount of time. This protector was built to withstand 3 pound cantaloupes that would challenge any size hail storm.

There is a series of video's of this invention on their website and after watching all of them trying to answer a few questions, I was unable to answer any of them. Specifically, how much does it cost? How easy is it to set up? and how does it work during a real hail storm?

As far as the cost goes the site simply asks for your email address and they will notify you when they can even sell them?

All of the video's already are wrapped in the Hail Protector so I have no idea how easy it is to set up or what it even takes to inflate around your car. How long does it take? What about putting it away/ storing it?

Oddly enough, out of 7 or 8 video's I was unable to see even one that shows the Hail Protector during an actual hail storm. They have one where a storm came Thur, but no hail. They also have demonstrations from throwing home made hail and tennis balls on top this invention. But for some reason real hail, along with the wind, is a little hard to reproduce.

A Successful Invention?

By the looks of it, I'm not so sure they got an investment in this invention. It could be a great idea but without knowing the questions above and not actually seeing it in a real storm, I would have a hard time investing in this product.

Comments

Thank you for your review. Hail Protector will range from $299 for a small car and $399 for a large SUV, with 6 sizes total. Hail Protector will also be offered for motorcycles, likely in the $149 to $199 range and boats likely similar in price to our car versions.

It sets up in 4 minutes or so for an automobile and inflates in 5 minutes or so. The cover will organically deflate in 12 minutes or so when remotely deactivated, or will deflate in just a couple of minutes if the velcro opening at the rear of the cover is opened. It packs up in 4 minutes or so.

Our early warning hail alert mobile application, which is included with Hail Protector, gives the user a 30 to 60 minute heads up to hail storms or the potential for hail storms. Without the mobile alert system we've developed, the effectiveness of the cover would be fairly moot because the user would still be guessing on when and if the storms are coming and if they have the potential for hail. Our data is derived from the National Weather Service and is applied to the data supplied by the user as to their location, either through addresses they provide or through user authorized GPS tracking.

Another key to Hail Protector is that it acts as a traditional car cover as well, providing the UV and weather protection traditional car cover buyers look for.

While one of our videos shows the image of a tennis ball next to a 14.9 ounce ice cube, it was the ice cubes (over 100) which were actually dropped on the cover, from 27 feet. The math demonstrates that 14.9 ounce ice cubes dropped from 27 feet equals the impact energy of a hail stone the size of a tennis ball. Similarly, the 3.2 to 3.5 pound cantaloupes we dropped, equal the impact energy of a softball sized hail stone.

We hope to be on the market within a few months. We need outside investment in order to go to market. Here is a video of our pitch to prospective investors. http://www.hailprotector.com/investors/

Thanks for posting that information Michael. That answers a lot of the questions I had. By first looking at it, I had the impression that this would cost a lot more then it does, which is a good thing. Is the mobile alert a one time cost to get the app?We actually had a car that was declared totaled after a major hail storm so I know first hand how bad hail damage can be.I also like the fact you can use it as a car cover as you mentioned above. Especially in the winter where it would sure make sense where I live.

I'm glad we were able to make it more clear. We filmed for many hours for the tv show and it all gets boiled down to about 14 minutes. But hey, we're not complaining, we just want our own tv channel like everyone else in the world. :-)

With regard to the mobile application, we're certainly including it for free for the 1st year and have gone back and forth on whether to charge for it after the 1st year. If we do end up charging for it the 2nd year, it will be no more than $9.99 per year thereafter, so pretty modest considering all it does.

Funny thing too is, we've had people contact us about the fact that there car gets hit with baseballs at the little league park or the guy who's truck gets hit with golf balls cause he lives on a golf course but his truck won't fit in his garage. Personally, one of my daughters friends once rode her bicycle right into my car. Now, I'm not so crazy as to actually scold a child, especially not mine, over something like that, but I could certainly live without the dent.

We revamped our website just a few weeks prior to the airing of the show and inadvertently left the price off the new site. As soon as I saw your blog, I had the Purchase page of the site changed to add pricing. Thanks for the heads up. We are proud of our pricing. Steve and I have a lot of experience in manufacturing and have done well to maintain all the quality necessary, while keeping costs low. Plus, as a company of 3 right now, our overhead is low and will remain fairly low even as we plan to reach sales of over 100,000 units per year in just a few years time. Price is a big part of sales velocity. This started as a passion to overcome such a previously helpless yet extremely costly and frequent issue and it remains that as it's my goal to provide over 100M Hail Protectors in the USA alone to people in hail plaqued states. Call me crazy, but it's not about the money, it's about providing something highly effective and complete in how it accomplishes it and empowering people to tell Mother Nature "Not here!, Not my car!"

Thanks again for your blog. Please feel free to contact me any time at the email above with questions. All the best.

Well the crowdfunding thing was a circus, so we have now launched The Hail Protector System in a normal fashion, thanks to a few great investors. Check us out at http://www.hailprotector.com/ At less than the price of the typical $500 deductible ($299 to $399) and including the most powerful early warning hail alert engine in the world, plus all the accessories we include, it's a tremendous value that is going to change auto hail damage forever.

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